Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer PROJECTIONS

SLOPPY THINKING GETS WORSE OVER TIME

She uses two projectors and the inside structure of MASS MoCA to create an environment. Holzer creates a struggle for power and control by invoking intense curiosity from her viewers. She invites you to join in the creation of her work, but then refuses to remain attached. She remains an outsider. Holzer wants the viewers to become engulfed by the larger than life bean bags she has positioned on the floor. While one is day dreaming, lights flood over the body and across the gallery floor. The words flood across the bare floor only to become shattered and obstructed by the viewers presence.
The same text is being projected from each end of the gallery. It is as if the text is talking to its self. The text changes from time to time, which the curator posts on the website to notify the public. Holzer did not write the text herself. Just like many did not enter the doors, a select few actually took time to read the text. One can read the text at the front or back of the gallery.
If one were to read the text in Projections, he or she would find out that it deals with war as well as the struggle for power and control. Currently the words of Wislawa Szymborskaare, a Polish poet, are being displayed. She hold mostly the same views as Holzer, "Even the worst book can give us something to think about" (Szymborskaare).
Holzer also has work in the two adjoining galleries. She titled them map paintings, which had previously been classified government documents. She silk screened these prints on to huge canvases. They were made available to the public after the 'Freedom of Information Act.' One can see these maps at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv. The second gallery includes large silk screen prints in which she has titled "Wish List." These documents can be read at http:www.aclu.org. The "Wish List" consists of a set of interrogation techniques that are to brutal to actually be used. An example of such wish is, "White Noise Exposure."
These two Galleries are often missed by the public. One has to walk all the way through Projections in order to reach the silk screened documents. The names of the paintings are printed on the back of the hand out printed by MASS MoCA. However the viewer would have to actually read the card. Once one reaches the top gallery there is an exceptional view of the main floor of Projections. Holzer has again distracted us from the importance of the documents, by leaving the balcony lookout uncovered. We are again distracted by the beauty of the text flowing over the main gallery. Holzer has achieved her goal of making the viewer comfortable in an uncomfortable environment. This is shown by noticing how children interact with the installation. They will be jumping onto the letters and the larger than life bean bags. The underlying feeling that there is something more, stops adults from seeing the installation as purely beautiful.
This feeling can be summed up by Holzer's latest Twitter Posted from the web at 02:24 AM September 19, 2008. "STASIS IS A DREAM STATE."
In Projections she has presented the viewer with a state of equilibrium, caused by two opposing forces. The bean bags being one force and the words being the other. They work against each other only to balance each other out. Causing the viewer to remain stagnant while creating the prefect balance of power and control. Holzer sets her viewers up for this dream state.